Many organizations worldwide have developed practices for internal control. The Institute of Internal Auditors' (“IIA”) Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards) defines control as:                . . . any action taken by management to enhance the likelihood that established objectives and goals will be achieved. Management plans, organizes, and directs the performance of sufficient actions to provide reasonable assurance that objectives and goals will be achieved. (Section 300.06)        
According to Specific Standard 300.05, the primary objectives of internal control are to ensure:                1. the reliability and integrity of information;        2. compliance with policies, plans, procedures, laws, regulations, and contracts;        3. the safeguarding of assets;        4. the economical and efficient use of resources;        5. the accomplishment of established objectives and goals for operations or programs.        
Many organizations have recognized the need for tracking the effectiveness of internal control practices. For example, according to the IIA's Professional Practices Pamphlet 97-2, Assessing and Reporting on Internal Control, the IIA supports the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, recommendation that organizations should report on the effectiveness and efficiency of the system of internal control.
One system of internal control, the Control Self-Assessment (CSA) methodology, was initially developed in approximately 1987 and is used by many organizations to review key business objectives, risks involved in achieving objectives, and internal controls designed to manage those risks. The IIA states that some CSA proponents have expanded this description to encompass potential opportunities as well as risks, strengths as well as weaknesses, and the overall effectiveness of the system in ensuring that the organization's objectives are met.
CSA approaches and formats may differ from one organization to another, however, the three primary CSA approaches are: facilitated team meetings (also known as workshops), questionnaires and management-produced analysis. Organizations may combine more than one approach. Facilitated team meetings gather internal control information from work teams that may represent multiple levels within an organization. The questionnaire approach uses a survey instrument that offers opportunities for simple yes/no or have/have not responses. Management-produced analysis is any approach that does not use a facilitated meeting or survey.
While existing methodologies and systems, such as the CSA, offer some structure in approaching the control of risk, to date, no system or methodology known to the applicants exists that properly quantities risks and the effectiveness of control procedures designed to address such risks. For example, many existing systems rely on a single weak link approach, without consideration of the significance of such link. If an assessor utilizing the weak link approach identifies a large number of processes associated with a risk element (e.g. business continuity), the presence of a single non-complaint process would red-flag the entire risk element, regardless of the significance of the non-complaint process. Thus, existing systems provide no mechanism for comparing results over time, nor are they reliable for providing a meaningful index of how well individual entities are measuring risk.
The method and system of the present invention addresses these and other limitations by utilizing a quantitative weighted approach to evaluating risk. A three-tiered approach to evaluate risk is preferably used, dividing the system into: “Risks”, “Subrisks,” and “Control Procedures.” An assessor is prompted through a series of screens to rate risks as “High,” “Medium” and “Low.” At the next level (the “Subrisk” level), a set of control procedures is provided. Each control procedure is rated by the assessor according to a number of categories, such as GREEN (full compliance), YELLOW (partial compliance), RED (non-compliance), or BLUE (not applicable). Control Procedures are assigned different weights because some risks are more critical than others. For items which are not fully compliant (e.g. items rated either YELLOW (partial compliance) or RED (non-compliance)), the assessor must either indicate that the risk is acceptable or create an action plan where deliverables are identified and target dates are established.
The system further provides a method of weighing, sorting and graphing displays which allows management to more easily identify significant areas of risk. This allows assessors to sort and view data in a number always, such as by organization, business line, city and process. The display system further allows the user to “drill down” by clicking on high risk areas facilitating the identification of specific assessments which are having a significant impact on the risk rating.
Targets are derived from the Action Plans. A target is an index or measure which informs management of progress against action plans. Targets and actual results will be compared from quarter to quarter, to determine whether appropriate progress is being made against commitments.